Ace of Hearts
by SirDragneel
Summary: Lucy is a young noble girl with a love for books and a big imagination. When she follows a mysterious man down a hole after hearing about a "disappearance" she ends up being just what Wonderland needed; Another Alice. [NaLu] [Slight OOCness]
1. Back Down Under

_**O-KAY this is a story I've had on my mind for awhile so I'll be writing this while I wait for my beta-reader for Project Zero to be done :)**_

 _ **This is basically an 'Alice in Wonderland' inspired story, but showing some different wonderland characters other than just the ones we've seen from the movies (both the 2010 one with Johnny Depp and the cartoon) although it will be more heavily based of the 2010 one, and by that I mean the more serious tone.**_

 _ **As I greatly appreciate all aspects of 'love' this story will go over a lot of not only that but what love can do to a person, as well as how dangerous it can be, and many other things the heart can do (I know the heart doesn't truly inflict emotion on a person but for the sake of the story, y'know?) Anyway now that I'm done explaining, I shall get on with it and I do hope you enjoy!**_

* * *

"Are you ready? Only another 30 minutes until the guests arrive, darling"

Lucy sighed heavily as she stood firmly in front of their great grandfather clock in the parlor. Lucy was all dressed up in a flowing blue and white dress for the special garden-party her father was throwing, and all the local bigwigs and their pig-headed children were supposed to be there. Oh the joy.

Her and her father lived in a large fancy villa by a lake. The view was beautiful, only Lucy could rarely wander outside by the waters, as she was always too preoccupied with studies, and her father expected BIG things from his dearest daughter.

Throughout the whole day Lucy was just wishing for tomorrow, hoping it would be better. In fact, she found herself doing this everyday. As the guests arrived, as they danced and ate, she never actually felt like she was there. Her head was still in the last story she read, the tale of "Alice in Wonderland"... She had adored the story since she was a kid, but later she would probably look back at how ironic this all was, but for the moment she didn't know.

The garden party was in full swing when a young man approached her with raven-black hair and gray eyes. To be quite frank, she hadn't recognized him as one of the noble's sons.

"sorry to trouble you Ms. Heartfilia..." He started, his voice making her shiver, despite the warm, summer air. "Would you mind dancing with me?"

She was told to never refuse a dance from a noble-man, but instead of answering, she merely grabbed his hand, eyeing him suspiciously. After about 2 minutes she finally spoke;

"I've never seen you attend one of papa's gatherings before." She stated, matter-of-factly.

He smiled coolly at this, answering "I usually don't like attending these... things... but I'm looking for a, eh, co-worker who seems to be scarce as of late."

Lucy blinked, as this was probably the most interesting thing she'd heard probably all summer, "Excuse me? Has he been abducted of the sorts?"

The young man across from her winced "Hard to tell, but I can't really say too much, all I know is that he isn't here."

Lucy glanced around, almost as if she didn't believe this. "Maybe I can help! What does he look like? Maybe he is here somewhere!" She couldn't help the smile at her slight excitement, which came with the thought of the adventure that may be ahead.

The black-haired man laughed "Trust me, you would know if he was here..." before Lucy could even ask what he meant he had stopped, and was walking off "Well, I must return home! Later!" he called back to her, doing a salute of sorts.

"W-Wait!" Lucy called out, and instantly chased after him

* * *

Gray cursed under his breath as the blonde girl followed after him. He knew she was a peculiar girl just from looking at her, but that's why he decided to damce with her, to see if she didn't know anything, not to get her to chase after him. He had to get back, and quick.

"Now where was that hole-Ah! There!" And without further ado, Gray made a leap for the decent sized hole that was in the Heartfilia garden.

The fall was a bit long a disorienting but what else was new? He just had to break the bad news to Wendy that he couldn't find him... Poor girl was a wreck since that guy disappeared, saying it "was all her fault". She was just new to the card thing was all.

Finally, Gray heard the satisfying sound of his polished black shoes hitting the marble of the Ace Tower. He turned, before finding himself stood in front of their resident joker, Gajeel, and their diamond, Wendy.

"Sorry guys, I checked all over, but he ain't on the above world..." Gray said, rubbing the back of his neck, not sure if it was out of guilt or just sadness for his lost comrade.

"Looks like you found a souvenir in any case, huh ice boy?" Gajeel said with a smirk.

Gray's eyes widened, before turning on his heels to see the girl from earlier staring with wide eyes at the trio.

"Oh my..." Wendy muttered, while Gray covered his face with his gloved palm.

"You've gotta be joking..."

Gajeel crossed his arms, huffing "Well, looks like we got another 'Alice'... Welcome to Underland, ya little brat."

Lucy barely had it in her to respond, but she did, with eyes wide as plates "W-Wonderland?!"

Gray could already tell this was definitely going to be an interesting month, starting off with the disappearance of the Ace of Hearts, and now a new 'Alice'. While he was somewhat exasperated, he couldn't help but grin. An 'Alice' only appeared when something entertaining was about to happen.

* * *

 _ **Well, That's all for my little introduction, but more will probably happen in the next one :) I promise!**_

 _ **By the by, "Alice" is just what they call anyone who wanders into Underland, after the first one to ever do so, Alice. Just in case you thought it weird :P**_


	2. The Heart's Chamber

"So let me get this straight..." Lucy, started, staring at Gray from over the rim of her teacup. "You're the 'Four Aces', and this is the 'Tower of Aces', which is located in 'Underland'... But then you're actually three, because 'Heart' has been missing for a few months?"

Gray sweatdropped at how crazy it sounded but nodded nonetheless "Y-Yeah..."

Lucy nodded "Ok, all I want to add is you only look like 'Two Aces'... I haven't seen an Ace of Clubs this whole time."

"Ah!" Wendy interjected "That would be Zeref, Heart's older brother, and it's rare to have two Aces from the same bloodline too!"

Gajeel stood up from the arm chair he was seated in, and looked up to the ceiling as if someone were writing a message for him up there. "Yeah, not to mention he hardly speaks to anyone but his brother, and has himself locked up in his room since Heart disappeared. He's been beside himself with worry, like the doting older brother he is."

Gray stood, Wendy following as he did so, and he reached his hand out to Lucy, reminiscent of the way he did so when he asked her to dance at that party. "Follow me, I'll take you to your temporary room..."

* * *

The whole tower was bright and alight with color, which was splashed across walls in forms of paint, drapes, and pictures. But then they turned a corner and everything grew dimmer. The whole hall was decorated in blacks and reds, and at the end of the hall, Lucy could faintly make out a picture. It looked like the picture of a boy, but she couldn't make out any facial details. All she saw was white where the eyes should be, and even though it was just paint on a canvas, it felt like the portrait was staring though her entire being.

Before she knew it they reached a huge double-doors, with a big red heart in the middle. Lucy's eyes widened and she looked at Gray "Is this..?" and he nodded before she finished "'The Chamber of Hearts', as it's formally called, at least on the layout plan. I hope you don't feel weird about sleeping in the room of a missing person..." he finished uneasily, ruffling his hair.

"Oh! Oh no, I'm ok! Maybe I might even find some clue to his whereabouts!~" She said excitedly and shoved the doors open, faintly hearing Gray laugh in the background, and saying 'Good Night!' before he turned and left, and the doors slammed close.

* * *

If she had one thing to say about the room, it was that it was significantly brighter than the hall outside the room. Bright reds and pinks were painted across the walls of the octagonal room, and multiple pieces of paper were either tacked to the wall, on tables, or strewn across the floor. There was also a significant stack of books piled next to the king sized bed on the nightstand.

Lucy stepped a few paces into the room, and made a point not to look at the floor, for the checkered marble floor made her rather dizzy. She frowned as she gathered up some of the papers from the desk, and began flitting through them. There was pages ripped out of books, and poem books, random sketches, and some sheet music.

She tightened her hold on the papers when she noticed there was actually a window in the room. A huge one that took up the whole far wall, and thick velvet curtains were drawn across it. She walked over, and yanked back the curtain, where she finally saw the town below the tower for the first time. It was certainly night out, but the streets were alight, and people walked through the streets happily.

"Seems odd that someone this individualistic would be in this room all the time..." She said, and continued sorting through papers. It was obvious this "Heart" person didn't get out much from the general state of his room, and how bleak the hall was outside. She would guess that every Ace was responsible for their own wings of the tower, and if that was the case, the only thing kept in order in this wing was definitely the room.

She squinted at a piece of paper she pulled from her stack she held, and noticed it looked different from the others. It was ripped in half (where the other half was she wasn't sure), and crumpled slightly, and there was, what, a handwritten poem on it? She frowned at what the words said too:

 _There was once a lovely city sitting underneath a tower_

 _Everyone there was happy just like nothing could go wrong._

 _The townsfolk always dancing and the children always laughing, But before the next morning that city was gone._

 _Everything was still and quiet, no one was alive and you couldn't hide it, children were sprawled across the floor, no one was dancing anymore._

 _They try to tell you 'it's ok' and that the pain will go away._

 _They tell you don't be sad and tell you not to cry, but you know that it was really all your-_

The rest was ripped off, she could only faintly make out some of the words below such as "Gaze", "Fire", "Several Wars", "Outdoors", and "Mask". It was evident this was written a long time ago, as the handwriting seemed sloppier than a lot of the other writings in the room. She felt a chill run down her spine at the rather creepy words. She tried making an educated guess at what it meant, but if the town from the poem was the one she saw from the window, they certainly made quite the comeback.

 _'Is this Heart guy really a good person...?'_ She asked herself, and before she knew it she was resting her head on the-incredibly comfy-pillows that were placed on the bed in the room, and soon she was drifting asleep, the odd little poem still clutched in her hand.

* * *

It was certainly too late for there to be so much ruckus in the the castle right now. The boy lifted his head off the pillow, groaning aggravatedly . If the guards outside his door were chattering nonsense again, he would surely set something on fire. Well, if he could he would, so he would have to settle for breaking a lamp, he supposed. Humans were wonderful things, sure, but didn't mean they couldn't be annoying.

He paused as he realized the noise was coming from outside, by the front gates. Leaping out of the bed quickly, he made straight for the balcony, not bothering with his mask or a shirt or jacket, or whatever. He regretted it a little at first, as the cool stone he stood bare-foot on instantly made him shiver, as well as the crisp night air. But he un-regretted it soon after, when he saw what caused the commotion.

The guards were holding a young blonde girl, her hair down to her waist, and talking quietly (or what they thought was quiet) about her. He leaned over the rail more, to get a better look, vaguely hearing the words "Spades", "Visitor", "Ace of Hearts" and "Alice". For one, it seemed that good ole' Queen of Hearts was keeping her duty as "resident kidnapping people in their sleep", for she apparently dragged this poor girl out of bed and brought her here.

Another thing, was that although they called her Alice, he knew that wasn't her name, as there had been so many "Alice's" before who weren't actually named Alice. Sadly he never could meet them. But he could certainly meet this one.

His lips tugged up into a smile, his onyx eyes gleaming as he stared fixatedly at the newcomer, which he wondered if she noticed as he saw her visibly shudder, and he pushed his cherry-colored fringe out of his eyes. This would be the first time an Alice has ever met The Ace of Hearts.

He just hoped she wouldn't destroy herself as well...


	3. A Meeting of Hearts

Natsu was never one for being a, as you would say, an "early bird". But today was different. There was a new person here, and not just any person, an ALICE. Those were pretty rare.

Before anyone else had woken, he was up, showered, dressed, and was fiddling around on the piano in his room, while waiting for the sun to at least rise. He decided it was safe to go out when the clock finally hit '8', and with that, exited his room, and was instantly followed by any passing maids.

He was wearing his usual attire, and unlike the other Aces, he didn't take much to the 'fancy' wardrobe. He always wore more simplistic clothes, and mostly wore a red t-shirt that reached just below his hips, black leather pants, and jacket, and he also wore black boots. Though his boots did have a slight heel to it, it was mostly because he was the shortest guy in the tower and frankly it was embarrassing, especially when they had meetings. So, he wore slightly-heeled boots to at least make him even with his elder brother.

His jacket had a red stripe close to the hem, and an ace of hearts stitched over the right breast, he also wore a red choker, and of course, his signature mask.

Natsu strolled briskly through the halls, no longer fascinated with the ornate red and pink decorations that littered the halls. At first the castle was a oddly beautiful sight, despite his apprehension considering he had just been abducted in the middle of the night.

The first thing on his mind was The Alice. He had read a lot on them, and how special they were, with special abilities that enabled them to practically break reality itself. Ace of Hearts' were always forbidden from ever meeting one, for fear they might break her, but Natsu had other ideas. Maybe this one could help him.

His first stop was the royal gardens, as Alice's were always drawn to the royal roses. But there was no Alice. He checked the kitchen, but still no Alice. He checked every place an Alice might be, but to no avail. How was she avoiding him so well? Was that even possible? Did he just overlook something?

"Sir Natsu, you seem distressed" One of the chamber maids that had been following him said "Is something the matter?"

Natsu ground his teeth together, not facing her, trying not to let his sheer aggravation get the best of him. "Just peachy." He managed out "But where is the Alice they brought in last night?" he demanded, making the maids look at each other quizzically.

"She's been in the library all day."

Natsu stopped. The library? Alice's were never ones for reading. Was she not an Alice after all?

He turned on his heel, making a b-line for the library, walking fast enough to lose the girls behind him. Who exactly _was_ this girl?

* * *

Lucy sighed happily as she walked down the halls, a pile of books in her hands. The library was fascinating, for sure , and had many books she had never seen before. But now she was pretty sure she was lost, among the never ending twists, turns, and hallways. She was sure glad _she_ didn't live in a castle, that was for sure.

The blonde stopped dead in her tracks as a taller figure briskly walked past her, smelling of timber wood and cherries. The two oddly complimented each other.

She had just noticed his spiky pink hair, which was blown in all directions, before he froze, and turned to face her. The first thing she noticed was the white were his eyes should be, as a red and black ornate mask shielded his features from onlookers.

Her memory flashed back to the big oil painting in the Ace of Heart's wing, and she fully realized what it was a picture of. This person, probably about 18 or 19, was the one the picture was depicting. His posture was both regal and confidant, as he held his shoulders back firmly. All that was visible under the mask was his tan skin and mouth, which was now curving upwards as he seemed to drink in her own appearance.

"You're the-"

"Ace of Hearts, yes" He interrupted, flicking his wrist dismissively "But you are much more interesting aren't you, Alice?" his voice was warm as a summers day, but also as soft as velvet, and she felt herself shiver.

"My name is Lucy." She stated, and even though she couldn't see the upper half of his face, she felt he was probably furrowing his brows.

He finally moved, stepping closer to her, leaning in close to her, and she felt her insides burn from his stare "You can call me Natsu." He finally said, turning to leave again "I look forward to seeing you around the castle, it should make this dull place a tad more entertaining."

And with those last words he disappeared around the corner.

* * *

Natsu could barely contain his excitement. Not many people knew but he could read people so well it was scary, like he was reading their minds. He just knew humans really well, and it was his job to know all things related to them, and what their hearts could do. But to have someone read _him_? It was unheard of! Especially while he wore this mask.

She was able to tell he was slightly conflicted.

Maybe she would finally be the one to see through his facade. But this feeling he had also scared him. Many had lost their hearts to him... But how would he handle losing his own?


End file.
